SEE FRENCH RIVIERA SET MINI SERIES THE REUNION BASED ON MUSSO'S FAMOUS NOVEL WITH IOAN GRUFFUDD, GREGORY FITOUSSI, RUPERT GRAVES

  THE REUNION TV SERIES 

FROM MUSSO'S BESTSELLER

The series will stream on ITVX next month

Here is one that kinda escaped my radar at some point: a small screen adaptation of Guillaume Musso's widely popular best selling book "La jeune fille et la nuit" which has been sold in more than 2 million copies around the world so far and has also been translated in over 35 languages making it a massive international hit. We do not have an English language trailer yet, sadly, but you can check out a French one below the post and tell us what you think.

 

  TITLED THE REUNION 

the six episode series about a missing girl and a secret buried for 25 years, already aired on France 2 broadcaster earlier this year and will arrive to ITVX in United Kingdom later this January and is already streaming on Stan in Australia. Ioan Gruffudd and Gregory Fitoussi together with Rupert Graves lead this series which starts in an elite prep school frozen in the snow. Three friends linked by a tragic secret. One girl taken by the night. 25 years ago, The girl body was buried in the gymnasium wall, the same wall that is about to be demolished.

The story is that of three friends linked by a tragic secret: the disappearance of their friend Vineca twenty-five years earlier. And when they find themselves nowadays, in the south of France, one of them will want to break the silence. In this trio of friends facing the secret, there is Fanny, played by Vahina Gioccante. The most vulnerable character.

1ST LOOK AT GUILLAUME MUSSO'S TV SERIES ADAPTATION THE REUNION WITH IOAN GRUFFUDD! CHILE TURNING ISABEL ALLENDE'S DAUGHTER OF FORTUNE INTO A 19TH CENTURY TV SAGA

   HIJA DE LA FORTUNA  

CHILE TO TURN ALLENDE'S EPIC NOVEL INTO TV SERIES

The series will be shot in English language

And it will be shot in English language! Beside other projects that will arrive to Spanish Conecta Fiction and Entertainment festival in Toledo, we have Invercine production house from Chile who is planning a TV series adaptation of Isabel Allende’s epic romance adventure HIJA DE LA TORTUNA aka DAUGHTER OF FORTUNE. Set during the gold rush of 1849, the series will take place in Chile and California. The series will have an international cast and an English show runner and writer. 

  1ST THE REUNION PHOTO  

FROM IOAN GRUFFUDD SERIES

Variety has published the first photo from MGM's mini series adaptation of Guillaume Musso’s bestselling novel “La Jeune fille et la nuit.” Starring Ioan Gruffudd and Rupert Graves,THE REUNION opens in the present day, at a reunion at an international school in the south of France where three former friends reconnect. They grew apart and lost touch, but they are still bound by a tragic secret tied to the disappearance of a fellow student 25 years ago.

IOAN GRUFFUDD, GREGORY FITOUSSI TO LEAD THE REUNION TV SERIES BASED ON MUSSO'S WORLDWIDE BESTSELLER! BBC TO ADAPT THE ENGLISH PATIENT INTO A PERIOD SET TV SERIES

    IOAN GRUFFUDD TO LEAD   

THE REUNION TV SERIES

Welsh star Ioan Gruffudd will lead the cast

As Variety reports, the French riviera set small screen adaptation of Guillaume Musso’s bestselling novel “La Jeune Fille et la Nuit,” has started shooting on location in the south of France with an international cast headlined by Ioan Gruffudd, Ivanna Sakhno and Grégory Fitoussi. Done for French television, Italian RAI and German ZDF, English language series THE REUNION opens in the present day, at a high school reunion in the south of France where three former friends reconnect. They grew apart and lost touch, but they are still bound by a tragic secret tied to the disappearance of a high school girl who went missing 25 years ago in the region. The book on

French star Gregory Fitoussi will also star in Reunion

which the six part series is based has been translated into more than 35 languages so far. Musso has been France's most popular writer for ten consecutive years now.

   THE ENGLISH PATIENT   

BBC WORKING ON TV ADAPTATION

Speaking of new series, BBC is apparently in early stages of adapting Michael Ondaatje's THE ENGLISH PATIENT into a period set TV series. As Deadline reports, it will offer a new vision of the story about four dissimilar

The series is in early stages of production

people brought together at an Italian villa during World War II! Emily Ballou (who also wrote Becoming Elizabeth for Starz) is penning the script which follows a unrecognisably burned man — the eponymous patient, presumed to be English — his Canadian Army nurse, a Sikh British Army sapper and a Canadian thief. Set behind the North African and Italian campaigns of the Second World War, the book is told out of sequence and moves back and forth between the patient’s memories before his accident and the current evens at the bomb-damaged Italian monastery.

PERIOD SET SATURDAY: COELHO'S 'ALCHEMIST' GETS MOVIE ADAPTATION! IOAN GRUFFUDD JOINS MEL GIBSON, SEAN PENN IN 'PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN' 19TH CENTURY FILM. CLAIRE COOPER IS LADY MONTAGUE IN 'STILL STAR CROSSED' EPIC SERIES

IOAN GRUFFUDD TO STAR IN

 'PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN' FILM & 'LIAR' THRILLER SERIES

One of our fave Welsh stars Ioan Gruffudd has two new potentially big gigs: not only that he will join the not so popular duo Mel Gibson and Sean Penn in the 19th century set movie THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN about the professor who started to compile the Oxford English Dictionary, but he will also take the lead role next to extremely busy Joanne Froggatt in ITV's six part thriller TV series LIAR! It will follow a female teacher and a renowned surgeon who spend together a night which will change their lives even though neither fully realizes the far reaching consequences that their meeting will have on each other or their families.

COELHO'S 'THE ALCHEMIST' 

TO GET MOVIE ADAPTATION
Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later, right? The most translated book by a living author, Paolo Coelho's worldwide bestseller THE ALCHEMIST will be adapted into a big screen feature movie by Sony TriStar and Laurence Fishburne's production company who bought the rights for a very pricey amount! The book, which has been sold so far in around 65 million copies in 56 different languages, revolves around a young Spaniard who embarks on a quest to find a hidden treasure within the Egyptian pyramids.

STILL STAR CROSSED EPIC SHOW

 FINDS ITS LADY MONTAGUE!

Meanwhile, the latest one to join ABC's upcoming midseason period set drama series STILL STAR CROSSED a sequel to Romeo and Juliet story is Claire Cooper who will play Lady Montague, a master manipulator and a woman with a dark past and dangerous secrets, in the show that picks up where the story of Romeo and Juliet ends, charting the treachery, palace intrigue and ill-fated romances of the Montagues and Capulets in the wake of the young lovers’ tragic fate. Anthony Head and Zuleikha Robinson play lord and lady Capulet, Grant Bowler is lord Montague, Torrance Coombs is prince Paris, Wade Briggs is Benvolio Montague who together with Sterling Sulieman as prince Escalus and Lashana Lynch as Juliet's cousin Rosaline actually are the lead characters in the new love triangle.

RODRIGO SANTORO IS JESUS IN 'BEN HUR' REMAKE? 'PLAYING IT COOL' TRAILER WITH CHRIS EVANS, IOAN GRUFFUDD, TOPHER GRACE! JOHN RHYS DAVIS IN 'SHANNARA' EPIC SERIES! NOAH REID, PAIGE SPARA IN 'KEVIN FROM WORK', SHOSHANA BUSH IN 'TOUGH COOKIE' SITCOM

IS RODRIGO SANTORO

JESUS IN 'BEN HUR' EPIC REMAKE?

We did lost track of the casting process for BEN HUR remake after the choices have turned out to be rather bland, but now they have a very interesting choice for the role of Jesus: according to 'The Hollywood Reporter' 300's Persian Emperor Xerxes Rodrigo Santoro could take the role! The epic drama will follow Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston), a prince in Jerusalem who is betrayed and sold into slavery. The story of his redemption runs parallel to the life and crucifixion of Jesus!. Morgan Freeman will be Ildarin who teaches BEN HUR how to drive chariots, Sofia Black D'Elia will play Ben-Hur's sister Tirzah, Toby Kebbell is Messala who sells him to slavery, HOMELAND's Nazanin Boniadi is BEN HUR's love interest Esther, while GAME OF THRONES' star Pedro Pascal is Pontius Pilate.

TELEVISION UPDATES

JOHN RHYS DAVIES IN 'SHANNARA'
In TV news, first info is that LORD OF THE RINGS star John Rhys Davies has joined SHANNARA epic fantasy series in which he will play King Eventine, Amberle’s (Poppy Drayton) grandfather, who has ruled the Elvin kingdom of Arborlon for decades!
NOAH REID IS 'KEVIN FROM WORK'
Over at ABC Family they have found lead stars for their two new sitcoms. First up is KEVIN FROM WORK in which  Noah Reid will play Kevin, an adorable but lonely young man unlucky in love who professes his love to his beautiful and quirky co-worker Audrey (Paige Spara), thinking he’ll never see her again after he accepts a job offer overseas. But then that job offer is rescinded and now they have to continue to work with each other. Matt Murray will be his best friend and confidant who is also a bit of a prankster; he’s always giving Kevin the not smartest advice.
SHOSHANA BUSH IS 'TOUGH COOKIE'
The other one is TOUGH COOKIE centring around a young mother who isn’t ready to parent and her daughter who doesn’t want to be parented. Shoshana Bush will play the lead role of Lilla, a strong-willed, successful publicist who got pregnant at a young age by a man she loved who dumped her, and she gave her baby girl up for adoption so she wouldn’t have to be reminded of him ever again. Now, she learns that her daughter, Eleanor, is slated for another round of foster care unless Lilla gives her a chance in a three-day trial that neither of them is looking forward to. Definitely not mother material, Lilla is shocked to see so much of herself in the outspoken, confident, take-no-prisoners Eleanor, and to her surprise, she doesn’t want Eleanor to go. Arturo del Purto will be Mickey, one of Lilla’s roommates, a neurotic hipster and something of a neat freak.

'PLAYING IT COOL' TRAILER

CHRIS EVANS, IOAN GRUFFUDD, TOPHER GRACE, ANTHONY MACKIE, MICHELLE MONAGHAN

You can also check out new trailer for delightful romantic comedy PLAYING IT COOL in which our beloved Chris Evans plays a writer who wants to write action but his publisher (Anthony Mackie)Bryan wants him to write about romance first. The problem is, the narrator doesn't believe in love. But when he meets Her (Michelle Monaghan), he falls for her, only to find out that she is already engaged to Stuffy (Ioan Gruffudd).The rather star studded cast also included Topher Grace, Aubrey Plaza, Ashley Tisdale, Luke Wilson... 

TRAILER WEEKEND: NEW CLIPS FOR 'LITTLE CHAOS' WITH KATE WINSLET, ALAN RICKMAN, 'EFFIE GRAY' WITH DAKOTA FANNING, DEREK JACOBI, EMMA THOMPSON, 'PLAYING IT COOL' WITH CHRIS EVANS, IOAN GRUFFUDD, TOPHER GRACE, ANHTONY MACKIE

'EFFIE GRAY' PERIOD TRAILER 

DAKOTA FANNING, DEREK JACOBI, EMMA THOMPSON, GREG WISE

It's a trailer weekend at Hollywood Spy, people, starting with the first gorgeous one for historical drama EFFIE GRAY starring Dakota Fanning, Emma Thompson (she wrote the film), Greg Wise, Tom Sturridge, Julie Walters, Derek Jacobi, Russell Tovey, David Suchet, Robie Coltrane! Out next month, it explores the scandalous true story of the troubled relationship between Victorian art critic John Ruskin and Effie, his teenage bride. After marrying at the tender age of 19, Effie quickly realises her marriage is a lie when Ruskin refuses to consummate it. Yearning for affection, she soon falls for the charms of the artist John Everett Millais. Desperate to be freed from John, Effie embarks on a life-changing journey to become one of the first women in history to seek a divorce from her husband, making her an everlasting figure in feminist history.

'PLAYING IT COOL' TRAILER 

CHRIS EVANS, ANTHONY MACKIE REUNITE ON THE BIG SCREEN
You can see one of world's most beloved actors Chris Evans in the truly beautiful trailer for PLAYING IT COOL (known before as A MANY SPLINTERED THING) which comes out this year reuniting him with Anthony Mackie. Topher Grace, Ioan Gruffudd, Michelle Monaghan, Ashley Tisdale, Aubrey Plaza and Giovanni Ribisi all star in the story of Me (Chris Evans), a young man disillusioned by love, who meets a breathtaking young woman, Her (Michelle Monaghan), at a charity dinner by pretending to be a philanthropist. Only one problem: she's engaged. Yet, he engages into a platonic relationship to be able to keep  seeing her. Like a young Walter Mitty using the power of imagination and wild vignettes, He will stop at nothing to conquer Her heart.

'A LITTLE CHAOS' CLIP 

 KATE WINSLET AND ALAN RIKCMAN AT FRENCH COURT

The cherry on top of the cake today is a clip (still no trailers) for Kate Winslet's period set drama A LITTLE CHAOS in which she mistakes Alan Rickman's King Louis XIV for a gardener. Kate Winslet is Sabine De Barra, a strong-willed 17th-century French gardener who challenges sexual and class barriers when she vies to design and build one of the main showcase attractions at King Louis’s XIV’s new palace at Versailles. Using wit and intelligence, she attracts the attention of the court’s renowned landscape architect, André Le Nôtre (Matthias Schoenaerts), and comes face to face with the Sun King himself, who demands the gardens become a paradise of unrivalled beauty.